Foto behorende bij het fotoalbum Reis door Azië van H.K. Westendorp en B. Osieck 1930 - 1931

This photograph of a trip through Asia, by Herman Karel Westendorp, is from an album with B. Osieck. It’s a record of a journey, so the mark-making is more about capturing a scene, the light. The texture is rough, the steps of the monument are worn, the figure in white seems almost superimposed. There's something very still about the figure - a lightness amongst all this density. Look closely at the carvings on the right. The way the light catches on them, it’s almost like a drawing. The gray scale flattens everything. It also emphasizes the stark tonal contrasts, making the scene graphic. Westendorp’s photograph reminds me a bit of some of Gerhard Richter's blurred photos which he then turns into paintings, both artists are using photography, but it’s not really about the photo itself. It’s more about seeing.